Solved Best Backup?

Hi,

I don't usually backup my data apart from on my NAS drives (Applications, Music, videos...), would I need a backup solution in the cloud or an application?

If so what would you guys recommend?

Your NAS is not a cloud storage? My 6 year old Qnap NAS also serves as a cloud storage.

kuyenmotdivad said:

Hi,

I don't usually backup my data apart from on my NAS drives (Applications, Music, videos...), would I need a backup solution in the cloud or an application?

If so what would you guys recommend?

Click to expand...

I do both.. Cloud and local external backups. (I also upload my app. repositories to MS Dev Azure..)

You question is too open ended. It depends on volume of data, type of data, criticality of data etc.


For example, I backup critical data (data which I cannot lose) to onedrive and an external drive.

Less critical data (data that is not a disaster if I lose but inconvenient for sure) only to onedrive.

Non critical data (mostly videos, pdf files) i.e. things I can redownload anyway, I back up now and then but not that often to an external drive.

This data is usually too big to effectively store on cloud as it just takes too long to upload.

My point is you need to devise a strategy that suits your data.

For critical data, at least, you should always have two independent backups, and storing in cloud is a good option (assuming you use a quality (e.g. onedrive, google drive which have a very secure infrastructure with backup servers).

I do have two NAS drives, using the drive mirror Raid (which does exact copy on two drives,) so I have 4 copies of my valuable data. But I'm not sure if there stored in the cloud as well. These drives are : Synology DS218J NAS 16TB (BACKUP) / WD My Cloud EX2 Ultra NAS 8TB (BACKUP)

This is my NAS backup with Acronis every night for my encrypted files

kuyenmotdivad said:

I do have two NAS drives, using the drive mirror Raid (which does exact copy on two drives,) so I have 4 copies of my valuable data. But I'm not sure if there stored in the cloud as well. These drives are : Synology DS218J NAS 16TB (BACKUP) / WD My Cloud EX2 Ultra NAS 8TB (BACKU

Click to expand...

No, I meant your NAS itself can be a cloud storage. You can access it remotely from your phone or laptop when you are outside of your home.

"I do have two NAS drives, using the drive mirror Raid (which does exact copy on two drives,)" What happens if you get hit with Ransomware?

RolandJS said:

"I do have two NAS drives, using the drive mirror Raid (which does exact copy on two drives,)" What happens if you get hit with Ransomware?

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Thats what I'm worried about, and why I'm looking for an external backup, online.

Gals, Guys, would it be possible for OP to eventually drop RAID, dedicate one of the formerly-RAIDed drives to exist only externally via USB, to exist only as an external USB backup/restore drive (which is only connected during B or R operations)?

RolandJS said:

Gals, Guys, would it be possible for OP to eventually drop RAID, dedicate one of the formerly-RAIDed drives to exist only externally via USB, to exist only as an external USB backup/restore drive (which is only connected during B or R operations)?

Click to expand...

I guess that would depend on the OP and whether they want RAID or not, or their understanding of it.

RolandJS said:

"I do have two NAS drives, using the drive mirror Raid (which does exact copy on two drives,)" What happens if you get hit with Ransomware?

Click to expand...

I run a NAS setup in RAID 10 (RAID 1+ 0). With this configuration I get both redundancy (RAID 1) and performance RAID 0). The negative is it requires 4 drives minimum and uses half the storage space. Example: I have four 6TB drives in my NAS box equaling 24TB, but because of RAID 10, the useable space is just 12 (10.8) TB.

Anyway, and something I've heard mentioned before is people think because they're running a RAID setup, and copy data to it, they have two copies available to them. That's not how it works, and in order to have a redundant system you'll need RAID 1 (RAID 0 does not mirror data).

In keeping things simple, all a redundant RAID system does is make it possible to restore your data to the drive should one of the drives fail. In the grand scheme of things though, a RAID setup is just a number of drives used to create a single drive for performance increase and/or redundancy purposes. The point here (and in keeping things simple) RAID setups should be viewed as a single drive.

With that said, I use a 3-backup solution - backup to local external drives, backup to NAS cloud drive, Cloud backup online (Carbonite). This gives me 3 places my data is backed up. And since I can't account for every what if in the universe that's more than sufficient

RolandJS said:

Gals, Guys, would it be possible for OP to eventually drop RAID, dedicate one of the formerly-RAIDed drives to exist only externally via USB, to exist only as an external USB backup/restore drive (which is only connected during B or R operations)?

Click to expand...

I would keep the RAID and use a third drive as an offline backup.

cereberus said:

You question is too open ended. It depends on volume of data, type of data, criticality of data etc.


For example, I backup critical data (data which I cannot lose) to onedrive and an external drive.

Less critical data (data that is not a disaster if I lose but inconvenient for sure) only to onedrive.

Non critical data (mostly videos, pdf files) i.e. things I can redownload anyway, I back up now and then but not that often to an external drive.

This data is usually too big to effectively store on cloud as it just takes too long to upload.

My point is you need to devise a strategy that suits your data.

For critical data, at least, you should always have two independent backups, and storing in cloud is a good option (assuming you use a quality (e.g. onedrive, google drive which have a very secure infrastructure with backup servers).

Click to expand...

Personally, as long as the data on the computer (not junk data), I will back it up, because I believe it will be used someday.

@kuyenmotdivad

You need to backup the NAS as well from time to time -- however for things like music, video etc these files are not changed very regularly - if at all so after an initial data backup probably only new files need to be backed up. Having the NAS backed up also protects against Ransomware.

I only use RAID 0 on my NAS (Linux software RAID 0 can use different size HDD's for RAID 0 arrays without wasting space) and since I have backup I'm not worried about "Redundancy or Failure". I have 2 NAS systems each with 2 SSD's for the OS (running Arch Linux) and temporary storage and both with 4 HDD's for data. I backup the OS (windows) to an image file nightly - or before any major changes on a Windows internal HDD and then copy the image to the NAS. Other multi-media etc I backup from the NAS to an external HDD every so often.

In over 5 years I haven't had any HDD failures and these NAS's are run 24/7 for months at a time. That doesn't mean to say a failure won't occur - but I'm covered and the RAID 0 means even old HDD's can be used decently and without wasting space. Multi-media files etc don't actually need mega fast HDD's anyway.

Using GRSYNC (the GUI version of RSYNC) only changed and new data is copied to the external drive. There are loads of options --excellent program . You could use CRONTAB and run the command version rsync to backup data at specific times if you wish.



If you don't have too much data you could use a Cloud provider rather than an external drive for NAS backup. The question then is what program would you use to back it up -- file explorer is tediously slow at uploading TB's worth of data to a cloud server !!!! and most ISP's have far slower upload than download internet speeds in any case. Cloud backup is only (IMO) useful for extremely critical data that you need to be able to recover at all times. Filezilla client (runs both on Windows and Linux) is a good program for uploading files to a cloud server BTW.

Most NON Windows servers have some type of Linux OS so backing up to external devices should be easy enough even from a command line --rsync is your best bet there.

Cheers
jimbo

Thankyou, some great advice.

Raid has two main purposes ...

1. To speed up access,
2. As failure protection for the mechanical drive hardware

It is not a backup system as any accidental damage, or malicious attack including a ransomware attack, to the data on one part of the array will be duplicated across the other disk(s)

You need a separate backup routine with the actual backups stored offline. the ideal would be multiple copies, stored in at least two physical locations). These days it may be an option to utilise an online storage option for one of the locations assuming you have the required online space and fast enough access to it.

There is also a secondary need for specific protection against malicious malware attacks which can be augmented by a well planned backup routine

There is a need to move away the current system where hardware is seen as something important to protect, but this can be replaced easily, whereas, Data , whether business information or "just" family photos Etc, can be irreplaceable

barman58 said:

There is a need to move away the current system where hardware is seen as something important to protect, but this can be replaced easily, whereas, Data , whether business information or "just" family photos Etc, can be irreplaceable

Click to expand...

Yep, for most domestic users, I cannot see point of Raid. It adds complexity but very little in data security.

cereberus said:

Yep, for most domestic users, I cannot see point of Raid. It adds complexity but very little in data security.

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So if both my NAS drives use the mirror (RAID 1) exact drives you would recommend I use?

The use of RAID array is still valid today - Mirroring is a simple way to protect data from accidents, caused by hardware failure if one drive goes down you still have the data on the second drive, (as long as you notice straight away and sort the issue out that caused the failure).

For a true backup regime you need a system where data is transferred to an external device regularly and then this drive is disconnected from the system it is protecting this should be setup to multiple drives.

The oldest system is the Grandfather - Father - Son technique with this you use three drives (or drive sets where you use a differential system) in order and cycled round It should also where possible the individual drive sets should be stored in different locations.

The latest backup can be retained close to the system where it can be used for quick repairs to minor data losses The middle should be stored in a safe location away from the computer so that where there is theft of hardware involved you can still recover the data. The third copy should be stored off site, to protect against catastrophic loss, Fire Flood or earthquake. This could be physical copy stored at another location, or these days an online storage option.

These days it often practical to store all backups online and even have Realtime copies backed up ( so the mirror is held online though the same issues with local mirrors also applies)

I would still recommend that more than one backup is held, especially for operating systems as issues here can take a while to show so a set further back can be useful

The timing of these backups should match the amount of data generated a small business with needs for records should look at daily or weekly cycles, where as the Music and video libraries of the normal home user, should normally only be done monthly

Operating systems like Windows 10 can normally be safely backed up the day before the monthly update on a different schedule to data